Comparison · prices as of 2026-07-04 · re-verified 2026-08-18
Grok 4 Fast vs DeepSeek V3.2
On price alone, Grok 4 Fast (xAI) runs about 16% cheaper than DeepSeek V3.2 for a typical chat workload (2K input + 500 output tokens, 1,000 requests/day). Whether that's the right trade depends on the capability gap — the breakdown below shows where each one wins.
Price per million tokens
| Spec | Grok 4 Fast | DeepSeek V3.2 |
|---|---|---|
| Input / MTok | $0.20 | $0.28 |
| Output / MTok | $0.50 | $0.42 |
| Context window | 2M | 128K |
| Max output | 30K | 8K |
| Class | fast / lightweight | workhorse |
Estimated monthly cost by workload
Same models, three realistic usage levels. The gap between them scales with volume, so the right pick can change as you grow.
| Workload | Grok 4 Fast | DeepSeek V3.2 | Cheaper |
|---|---|---|---|
| Light — chatbot 0.5K in / 0.2K out · 200 req/day | $1.20 | $1.34 | Grok 4 Fast |
| Typical — assistant 2K in / 0.5K out · 1K req/day | $19.50 | $23.10 | Grok 4 Fast |
| Heavy — RAG / agent 8K in / 2K out · 5K req/day | $390 | $462 | Grok 4 Fast |
Which should you pick?
- Cheapest overall: Grok 4 Fast — about 16% less per month on a typical assistant workload.
- Input-heavy work (long-context RAG, summarization): Grok 4 Fast wins on input at $0.20/MTok. Output-heavy work (drafting, code generation): DeepSeek V3.2 wins on output at $0.42/MTok.
- Largest context window: Grok 4 Fast at 2M tokens vs 128K — the one to pick if you feed in whole documents or codebases.
- Different classes: Grok 4 Fast is a fast / lightweight model, DeepSeek V3.2 is a workhorse model — expect DeepSeek V3.2 to be stronger on hard reasoning and Grok 4 Fast to be faster and cheaper to run.
Frequently asked questions
Is Grok 4 Fast or DeepSeek V3.2 cheaper?
Grok 4 Fast is cheaper — roughly 16% less per month on a typical assistant workload (2K input + 500 output tokens, 1,000 requests/day).
What do Grok 4 Fast and DeepSeek V3.2 cost per million tokens?
Grok 4 Fast is $0.20 per million input tokens and $0.50 per million output. DeepSeek V3.2 is $0.28 input and $0.42 output. Prices are first-party API list rates as of 2026-07-04.
Which has the larger context window, Grok 4 Fast or DeepSeek V3.2?
Grok 4 Fast does, at 2M tokens versus 128K for DeepSeek V3.2.
When should I choose DeepSeek V3.2 over Grok 4 Fast?
Choose DeepSeek V3.2 when you need the extra capability of its workhorse class; drop to Grok 4 Fast when speed and cost matter more than peak quality.
Related comparisons
Sources: xAI pricing · DeepSeek pricing. Run your own numbers in the cost calculator.